Friday, 28 August 2009

Get Ready for an exciting 2009-10 Met Live in HD

Karita Mattila as Tosca ready to jump to her death in Puccini's perennial favorite that opens the 2009-10 Met in HD Season (Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Opera)

While Canadians lament the end of summer and warm weather, we welcome the start of the much anticipated musical season. Now in its fourth year, the Met in HD has become a Saturday ritual for many of us. To be able to sample the best the Met has to offer, in air-conditioned comfort at a Cineplex theatre near you is something that opera lovers could only dream about a few short years ago. I have been attending these shows since The Magic Flute in its first season. This season, for the first time, patrons can purchase *reserved seats* in advance. This is a huge improvment. You no longer have to wait in line an hour ahead of time to get your desired seats. As I understand, since the tickets went on sale last week, business has been extremely brisk. Be sure to secure your seats before they are all gone. Here is the press release sent to me by Cineplex Entertainment with the details of the shows and the locations.

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Escape to the Ultimate Stage Spectacle The Met: Live in HD at Select Cineplex Entertainment Theatres

Advance tickets for 2009-10 series available Friday, August 21st

Toronto, ON (CGX.UN) – August 19, 2009 – Cineplex Entertainment is showcasing another great season of opera! Now in its fourth season, the wildly popular and award-winning The Met: Live in HDseries continues with nine live opera performances for the 2009-10 season. Shown in High Definition and Digital Surround Sound, all nine performances start at 1 pm EST beginning with Puccini’s Toscaon Saturday, October 10, 2009 and, for the first time, guests will be able to enjoy reserved seating at select Cineplex Entertainment theatres. “We are pleased to have The Met: Live in HD series return for a fourth season to Cineplex Entertainment theatres across the country. The series has captivated our guests and their interest continues to grow with the performances becoming a familiar ritual on Saturday afternoons at our theatres,” said Pat Marshall, Vice-President, Communications and Investor Relations, Cineplex Entertainment. “This year, we have once again expanded the number of theatre locations by 10 per cent and, for the first time ever, added reserved seating at select locations as an added convenience for our guests to experience world class opera.”Beginning Friday, September 4th individual tickets are available online at www.cineplex.com/events as well as at participating theatre box offices. Admission prices vary by location. SCENE and Met Opera members enjoy priority access with an exclusive advance ticket window for the 2009-10 series beginning Friday, August 21st at participating theatre box offices. Membership in the SCENE program is free and guests can apply online at www.scene.ca. For information on The Met Opera in New York or to obtain tickets or membership information, visit www.metopera.org/hdlive or call 1-800-Met-Opera (1-800-638-6737). Season tickets can be purchased in person only at any of the participating theatres. Guests that purchase season tickets for all nine performances will receive a 15% discount off the purchase price, a 10% discount when purchasing tickets to any five or more performances and a 5% discount when purchasing tickets to any three or more performances. A special group rate is also available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on group rates, call 1-800-313-4461 or emailcorporatesales@cineplex.com.Beginning Saturday, October 10th, the following performances will be shown live from New York at 1 pm EST at select Cineplex Entertainment theatres:Saturday, October 10, 2009: TOSCA – Director James Levine, who conducts this new production of Puccini’s Tosca, tells the story of three people – a famous opera singer, a free-thinking painter and a sadistic chief of police – caught in a net of love and politics. Soprano Karita Matilla sings the title role for the first time outside her native Finland, Marcelo Ấlvarez as Cavaradossi and Juha Uusitalo as Scarpia.Saturday, October 24, 2009: AIDA – Set in ancient Egypt, Verdi’s Aida is both a heartbreaking love story and an epic drama full of spectacular crowd scenes. Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival. Johan Botha plays Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army and Daniele Gatti conducts. Among the score’s highlights is the celebrated Triumphal March.Saturday, November 7, 2009: TURANDOT– Director Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of Puccini’s last opera is a favourite of the Met repertoire. Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can’t solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous “Nessun dorma”.Saturday, December 19, 2009: LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN– Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German romantic writer E.T.A Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts a stellar cast including Anna Netrebko as the tragic Antonia, Kate Lindsey as the ambiguous Nicklausse and Alan Held as the demonic four villains. Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher directs this new production.Saturday, January 9, 2010: DER ROSENKAVALIER– Strauss’s comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover. Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.Saturday, January 16, 2010: CARMEN– One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen “is about sex, violence and racism – and its corollary: freedom,” says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet’s drama. Elīna Garančaplays the seductive gypsy of the title in her role debut, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.Saturday, February 6, 2010: SIMON BOCCANEGRA– Four decades into a legendary Met career, tenor Plácido Domingo makes history singing the title role in Verdi’s gripping political thriller, which is written for a baritone. Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani and James Morris are his co-stars in this moving and tragic story of a father and his lost daughter. James Levine conducts.Saturday, March 27, 2010: HAMLET– Simon Keenlyside and Natalis Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.Saturday, May 1, 2010: ARMIDA– This mythical story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini’s version, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels”.Cineplex Entertainment will also be showing encore presentations at select theatre locations at 1 pm EST for guests who may not be able to attend the live transmission or who simply want to watch it again. The encore presentation schedule is as follows: Saturday, October 31, 2009 – Puccini’s ToscaSaturday, November 21, 2009 – Verdi’s AidaSaturday, December 5, 2009 – Puccini’s TurandotSaturday, January 23, 2010 – Offenbach’s Les Contes d’HoffmannSaturday, March 6, 2010 – Strauss’s Der RosenkavalierSaturday, March 13, 2010 & Sunday, April 11, 2010 – Bizet’s CarmenSaturday, March 20, 2010 – Verdi’s Simon BoccanegraSaturday, April 24, 2010 – Thomas’s HamletSaturday, May 22, 2010 – Rossini’s ArmidaCineplex Entertainment will present The Met: Live in HD at the following select theatres throughout Canada:BRITISH COLUMBIA

For a list of theatre locations showing the encore performances, visit www.cineplex.com/events.About The MetUnder the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company’s repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world. The Met’s 2009-10 season features eight new productions, four of which are Met premieres: Janáček’sFrom the House of the Dead, Verdi’s Attila, Shostakovich’s The Nose, and Rossini’s Armida. The other new productions are Puccini’s Tosca, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Bizet’s Carmen, and Thomas’s Hamlet.Building on its 78-year-old international radio broadcast history – heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network – the Met uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to reach audiences around the world.The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series returns for its fourth season in 2009-10 with nine transmissions, beginning October 10 with Tosca starring Karita Mattila and ending with Armida starring Renée Fleming on May 1. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes much of its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio broadcasts both live and rare historical performances; the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service offers audio recordings; and the Met presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.The Met has launched several audience development initiatives, including Open House dress rehearsals, a popular rush ticket program, reduced ticket prices, Gallery Met, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more information, please visit: www.metopera.org.About Cineplex EntertainmentAs the largest motion picture exhibitor in Canada, Cineplex Entertainment LP owns, leases or has a joint-venture interest in 129 theatres with 1,328 screens serving more than 63.5 million guests annually. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Cineplex Entertainment operates theatres from British Columbia to Quebec and is the largest exhibitor of digital, 3D and IMAX projection technologies in the country. Proudly Canadian and with a workforce of more than 10,000 employees, the company operates the following top tier brands: Cineplex Odeon, Galaxy, Famous Players, Colossus, Coliseum, SilverCity, Cinema City and Scotiabank Theatres. The units of Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund, which owns approximately 99.6% of Cineplex Entertainment LP, are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol CGX.UN). For more information, visitwww.cineplex.com.

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La Scena Musicale is a monthly Canadian classical, opera, jazz and world music magazine published in English and French by La Scène musicale/The Music Scene, a non-profit charity dedicated to the promotion of music and the arts. La Scena Musicale's award-winning website SCENA.org has been a world leader of classical music and arts news since 1996. The LSM Blog is the place for commentary and news on music and the arts in Canada and around the world. Publisher: Wah Keung Chan; ISSN 1925-9700